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investigation. >> let me read between -- >> sure. >> i want to read the tweet. the words the president used in the statement on twitter that he released earlier this morning. this is a terrible situation. and attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now before it continues to stain our country any further. bob mueller is totally conflicted and his 17 angry democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to usa. i just want to be specific what the president has said because, dana, this is the most bombastic statement he's made yet on this entire russia probe. and it comes as mueller is now engaged in the first trial that's actually started yesterday. >> no question. and, look, when -- and this goes to the heart of part of the mueller investigation. when a boss, or when the president, says -- makes a suggestion to a subordinate, is it really a suggestion?
like david chalian was saying earlier, when your boss or my boss suggests something to us, is it really just a suggestion, or is it, please do this. and it's not different when you're looking at this issue and when you're talking about these players. that's why giuliani came out in a very carefully worded statement that he gave to me to make clear that this is not what the president's intention is. the question is not answered, which we are all asking, is why the president is doing this in the first place. this tweet, a series of other tweets this morning sure looks like somebody who was very preoccupied with this and very concerned about something maybe we don't know about. yet. >> let's go to jeff zeleny at the white house. standing by for sarah sanders. her press briefing was to begin at 1:00. now delayed until at least 1:15. what is motivating, driving the president right now to issue these kinds of very, very blunt,
Wolf Blitzer looks at politics, breaking news and international stories.
as long as he's been angry at him. but he's never fired him. it's the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who is in charge of this investigation. so the president didn't necessarily say that he was going to ask rod rosenstein to have mueller end the investigation. so it does seem as though he was blowing off some steam trying to discredit this investigation. but, wolf, it will be interesting to see if the press secretary sarah sanders reflects the same explanation or definition or defense that rudy giuliani was giving to dana earlier. clearly this is as far as the president has gone. clearly this is a different moment in this investigation. and the president, if you look at the tweets from the weekend on when he was directly going after bob mueller, directly going after this investigation, it does seem he's more agitated by it. perhaps he does know more than we know in this investigation. we'll see what the white house has to say in just a few minutes, wolf. >> we certainly will. jeff and dana, stand by. gloria borger and our panel are here as well.
the allegation immediately after the president tweeted these words about jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt was that potentially he's obstructing justice. >> you know, that has been a question that we've all looked into. whether the president's tweets are being looked into by the special counsel as potentially obstructing justice. but i want to remind everyone because we've all reported -- cnn has reported that trump personally pressured sessions on multiple occasions to recuse himself from this investigation. he has been angry about sessions recusing himself for months. but this takes this whole thing to a different level. and once again, we find ourselves parsing the president's words. rudy giuliani's statement to dana is he said should, not must. last week, we were talking about would versus would not. they are trying -- i mean, they are the shovel brigade here, trying to clean up this mess
that the president is making. tweeting about bob mueller and his attorneys, i guarantee you, jay sekulow being one of them, are probably pulling their hair out about this because it's the last thing they want to hear from the president, particularly when they're engaged or sort of engaged with the special counsel about trying to figure out whether the president testifies or not. >> this is a moment right now, a very critical moment, because on top of all of this, the president is now weighing in. there's a federal trial under way in alexandria, virginia, just outside washington, d.c. mueller and his team are going after paul manafort, the man who was the president's campaign chairman. all of a sudden, the president is weighing in on paul manafort as this trial is just beginning. it's day two. looking back on history, he tweets, who was heated worse. alfons capone, legendary mob boss, or paul manafort, political operative and
reagan/dole darling now serving solitary confinement although convicted of nothing. where is the russian collusion? i don't remember a time when a sitting president of the united states has gotten involved in discussing an ongoing federal trial. >> except maybe nixon, right? if you think about it. on principle, and precedent and the norms of the office, the president should not be commenting publicly on any of this because it might come across as undue influence from the president, whether you're talking about the manafort trial, an ongoing trial, or the mueller investigation where the president and his allies still are potential targets of that trial. they have an interest, skin in the game. again, principle and the norms of the office, if they mattered in this. we've seen those shredded and passed over many times before. on the language, it's interesting that giuliani is trying to establish some sort of code for trump's language when he issues these public orders because there's really been no consistency there. the president has launched
unitary executive that says he can hire and fire anyone he wants but that doesn't mean he can do anything in his constitutional role. and what this president continues to struggle with, or perhaps just disregard is his -- the difference between his personal opinions and his weighing in as a private citizen and things he might not like versus he actually is in a constitutional role. >> because rudy giuliani in the statement that he released and dana bash reported said the president was expressing his opinion on his favorite me medium -- twitter -- for asserting his first amendment right of free speech. everything the president says as a sitting president, whether it's on twitter or official white house statement or news conference, that is historic. that's a presidential statement. >> that's right. he is the president, and words matter. this isn't something new to him. if you think about his days as ceo. the head of a company, when he said things, people acted. you can't just say now he's justice blowing off steam and letting us know his opinion. the issue here is that we cannot get numb to this.
Wolf Blitzer looks at politics, breaking news and international stories.
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Wolf Blitzer looks at politics, breaking news and international stories.
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a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! very dramatic day in washington. we're standing by for the press briefing. sarah sanders expected momentarily to walk in and start answering reporters' questions. we'll, of course, have coverage of that. at the same time, there's other related news that we're following. a political consultant and an fbi agent have now taken the stand on day two of paul manafort's trial. in opening statements the prosecution portrayed manafort as living an extravagant lifestyle fueled by secret income from lobbying in ukraine. but the defense says it was manafort's former deputy rick gates who lied and stole money. let's go to our crime and
justice reporter shimon prokupecz. he's joining us in washington. rick gates, he had been expected to testify for the prosecution. now there seems to be some questions about that. what can you tell us? >> certainly, wolf, there has been certainly by the defense team. and rick gates is on the witness list for the prosecution. but nothing holds them to that. doesn't mean prosecutors have to call them. what happened just about an hour ago in court, during testimony by this fbi agent who was talking about documents and other information that he recovered from manafort's home during a search warrant execution, the prosecutor was asking him questions about some of those documents and rick gates came up and a judge trying to move things along says, well, why are you essentially asking this agent about this. we're going to have rick gates here. and at that point the prosecutor said, well, we may or may not call rick gates. obviously the idea that the prosecution would not call rick gates is somewhat newsworthy.
the defense has made a big deal out of it in their opening statement saying that pinning everything on rick gates. so it would leave an interesting strategy here for the defense. a position here for the defense as to whether or not they're going to go ahead and call rick gates, if the prosecution does not. >> maybe the prosecution thinks they don't need to call rick gates. he's already admitted lying to federal authorities. he's plead guilty. maybe they think they have enough evidence, documents, other evidence, they don't need to call him. >> that's exactly right. based on some of the reporting we've done, we were kind of surprised that rick gates would be on the witness list. we've been all along told that when rick gates was working on his cooperation agreement with the special counsel, they said to him they didn't really need him on the manafort stuff. when you look through now the second day of this trial, all the documents that have been recovered and other information, it would seem that rick gates would just be kind of a bonus to
them and perhaps given the strategy here by the defense, prosecutors are now saying, well, why do we need to call them? it could only dirty our case up and, therefore, no need for us to call them. just make our case and prove our case through other witnesses and through a lot of the documents they have now recovered and are using in this trial. that's a good point, wolf. >> the defense would have to decide if they call them as a witness? a hostile witness? those are to be determined. shimon, thank you. gloria, the president tweeted this morning on this paul manafort case, which is pretty unusual at the start of a federal case. president tweet again. this is a different tweet from earlier. paul manafort worked for ronald reagan, bob dole and many other prominent respect ed people. these have nothing to do with collusion. a hoax. it's pretty unusual. trial starts and he's weighing in on paul manafort. >> he is. and what's odd about this, to be
honest is that donald trump and paul manafort were never close. paul manafort was brought in to the campaign by a friend of donald trump's who recommended, hey, this guy knows how to count delegates. that's when we saw there was going to be a delegate fight at the convention which there turned out not to be because donald trump went over the finish line after indiana. so they actually didn't need him. but then they liked him and they promoted him to run the campaign effecti effectively. that's when they ousted corey lewandowski. so he is somebody who is not personally close to trump. but i feel that trump feels personally threatened by manafort because if there is a conviction here, what this does is it gives the mueller investigation credibility. and so he's been calling it a witch hunt and a hoax. you have all the indictments of the russians which shows that it's not a witch hunt and a hoax but if manafort were to get
convicted, that does give mueller some wind at his back. it's very, very important to him. and i think trump understands that. >> it's important to remember, jim, and you've done a lot of reporting on this that manafort was working for pro-russian, pro-putin, pro-kremlin rich guys in ukraine, including viktor yanukovych who was a pro-putin leader of ukraine. and that sort of fits in to this investigation. >> his client -- manafort's client who paid him tens of millions of dollars was not a good guy. he was putin's guy in the ukraine. he was corrupt. accused of overseeing the shooting of civilian protesters during the maidon protests. he jailed his political opponent there, tibishenko. and manafort tried to build support in the west for the jailing of his political opponent. this is the thing. if you are thinking about the kind of work he was doing there. yes, it was prior to his time with trump. but it was significant work for someone with russian ties who
was not a boy scout, right? and to be fair, he was not the only one working for him. tony podesta also did some work for -- >> the brother of john podesta who was the hillary clinton campaign chairman. >> exactly. but the level and duration and amount of work manafort did for him was important and relevant and long running. the other point i would make is this. it's a bit rich for trump and his allies to claim that paul manafort was in effect some sort of short-term coffee boy. they were a key three months to get the delegates at the convention, through the convention. and he was the head of the campaign. not a low-level position but time and position doesn't mean much here because they will -- with michael cohen, for instance, who worked for the president for more than a decade, in a very intimate role, they're now claiming they always knew he was a liar. not a lot of -- there are some thin arguments being made about their relative connection and
importance to this president. >> and also in the trump tower meeting with don junior. >> yes. >> and that may be something that troubles the president. >> everybody hold their breath. a lot more to discuss. we're waiting for the briefing to begin any moment now. there you see live pictures. the reporters, they're all in their seats already. we're waiting for sarah sanders to show up. also, the president doing an interview in which he says a government shutdown over his border wall with mexico is a great campaign issue. he also says there's a lot of evil people here in washington. get ready. we'll discuss. ♪ it's so hard to believe ♪ but it's all coming back me. ♪ baby, baby, baby. all you can eat is back, baby. applebee's.
as sarah sanders walks over to the microphone. a ton of questions reporters have for her today. we'll see how far she's willing to go, how many questions she's willing to answer. stand by for live coverage. all this happening as the president, gloria, has just given an interview to rush limbaugh, a radio interview, in which he doubled down on his decision that, unless there's a border wall with mexico and other immigration issues, he's willing to shut down the federal government. he says, a lot of good people ask me, could we do it after the election? they've been good to me? i think it's a great campaign issue. i think it would be great before. but i don't want to disappoint a lot of great people. so he's insisting, he's ready to shut down the government at the end of september when the fiscal year ends. >> sounds like he's listening to them. >> mitch mcconnell, paul ryan -- >> people that want to keep their majorities in the congress. what i'm sure mitch mcconnell and paul ryan are saying to him
is, are you kidding me? we have people in the house, for example, in suburban republican districts that are in danger of losing their seat and we want to try and keep those seats. and not only are women going to come out and vote but this woubld a real problem. government shutdowns are generally not popular when people understand what it means to them. and so they are saying, no, don't pull that card yet because it will complicate things. plus, don't forget, they want to get brett kavanaugh confirmed for the supreme court. how are they going to do that if the congress is shut down? in a funny way, maybe chuck schumer will say, yeah, let's shut the government down because that way kavanaugh wouldn't make it to the start of the supreme court session. who knows. >> the president also said there are evil people here in washington in this interview with rush limbaugh.
let me read to you another quote from the president. you have a lot of bad people in washington. you knew that a long time ago. frankly, before i knew it, i had no idea how evil some of them are. but you have some great people, too. so he's doubling down on his evil people here in washington. >> what a revelation. i mean, it's washington. you have it in every city. listen. it fits his narrative. he blames -- in there is blame he assigns to various folks who criticize him or stand up to him. some of them, sadly, the media is often one of his favorite targets. but not just the media. even some in his own party and democrats. it's a consistent trump theme, and it's perhaps some consistent trump hyperbole there. >> let's get back to his tweet. a real bombshell this morning, carrie, when he said this is a terrible situation and attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now before it continues to stain our country any further.
he said bob mueller is totally conflicted and has 17 angry democrats doing his dirty work are a disgrace to the usa. adam schiff, the top democrat issued a statement following that. quote, the president of the united states just called hosattorney general to put an end to an investigation in which the president, his family and his campaign may be implicated. this is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight. america must never accept it. what's your reaction to that statement from adam schiff? >> adam is not only on the house intelligence committee but also a former prosecutor. and as a former prosecutor, as anybody who used to be in the justice department, to see a president trying to pressure, for political purposes, the department of justice, it's just offensive. >> with that thought, here's sarah sanders. >> it's like the q. you knew i was coming. good afternoon. later today at 1:35 p.m., hawaii time, vice president mike pence at the request of president trump will participate in an
honorable carry ceremony at joint base pearl harbor. the leader of north korea has followed through on his commitment to return the first set of remains to our homeland. these brave souls deserve nothing but our honor and respect. the families of these soldiers have been waiting for more than 60 years for their loved ones to come home. we hope that as remains are identified, families like those of commander john k. mcheel can find peace. john was assigned to navy squadron 125 and was killed leading a dive bomb mission. his nephew doug recently wrote the president a letter explaining how his uncle was a special person who grew up in the great depression and wanted to serve his country. another letter from mary in pennsylvania tells the president of her uncle corporal andrew boyer who has been missing in action in korea since september of 1951. mary has a picture of her uncle in her living room as a reminder
of his commitment and service to our country. both of these men and their families represent thousands of proud patriotic american families. the president is committed to them and will work to bring them the closure they deserve. on another matter, we have seen all of the alarming images of the wildfires causing severe damage out west. the white house and fema have been actively monitoring the wildfires to ensure that federal assistance is provided as quickly as possible. on saturday, the president declared that an emergency exists for the california wildfires. as a result, fema has placed resources from eight different federal departments and agencies to support the efforts of local firefighters and relief organizations. the president will continue to monitor this ongoing emergency and make sure the people of california receive the assistance they need to keep them safe and recover. our prayers are with the firefighters who recently lost their lives battling these fires and their grieving families. lastly, the president has been
closely following the ongoing situation in turkey involving pastor andrew brenson. we've seen no evidence that pastor brenson has done anything wrong, and we believe he's a victim of unfair and unjust attention by the government of turkey. at the president's direction, the department of treasury is sanctioning turkey's minister of justice and minister of interior, both of whom played leading roles in the arrest and detention of pastor brenson. any property or interest in property of both ministers within u.s. jurisdiction is blocked, and u.s. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. for anything further, i would refer you to the treasury department on that front. with that, eultake your questions. zeke? >> thank you. first, quickly. last month there were only three briefings with you for a total under an hour. we'd appreciate it if we get
more time. a lot of issues we'd like to cover. one of those is the president's tweet this morning about the president's direction to jeff sessions asking him to end the mueller probe right now. the president said a few weeksing -- or a few months ago he's not going to intervene in the department of justice's investigation. was this more of a change in posture? >> it's not an order. it's the president's opinion and it's ridiculous that all of the corruption and dishonesty that's gone on with the launching of the witch hunt, the president wants to -- has watched this process play out. but he also wants to see it come to an end as he stated many times. and we look forward to that happening. >> and on a different topic, sarah, you mentioned the transfer of the remains from north korea. fulfilling his commitment to the president. there's a report yesterday that north korea is still assembling icbms. it's not yet possible to verify the remains being transferred back are human or american.
how does that meet the test of north korea fulfilling its requirement? >> i'm not going to comment on your first part of the question on any potential intelligence matter. in terms of the remains, we have the best of the best that have been working over the last several weeks on this process. we'll keep you updated on it. but we feel comfortable in the assessment that they've made up until this point. john? >> sarah, on the next proposed tranche against china, the figure initially for tariffs was 10%. but it's our understanding that the president now wants to take that up to 25%. what's the reason behind increasing it from 10% to 25% and in a tit-for-tat, if you want to call a trade war something else, who has more bullets? china or the united states? >> the president firmly believes that the united states certainly does. we'll have an update later today, and there will be a call
at 3:30 this afternoon to walk through the details of that update in regards to the question you asked about 10 to 25. the bottom line is the president is going to continue to hold china responsible for their unfair trade practices. this has gone on for long enough, and he's going to do something about it. >> does the president believe that -- >> back here, sorry. go ahead, john. >> the president has made some headway with the eu in terms of lowering trade barriers, taking steps toward leveling the playing field. does the president and his team believe that that is possible with china without some taking some real punitive measures? >> certainly we'd like to see the playing field level. the president, as both he and i think about 15 members of his administration have said repeatedly we'd like to see the unfair trade practices stop. until that happens, the president is going to hold their feet to the fire and continue to
put pressure on china. he's not going to sit back and allow american industries and american workers to be taken advantage of. dave? >> sarah, churches around the country, synagogues, some evangelical leaders have been up in arms in the last few weeks about last year's tax cut law. there's a provision that's going to force them to pay a new 21% federal income tax on the benefits they give to certain employees. can you assure churches from the podium that they'll not have to pay a new tax? >> i'm not going to make a blanket generalization about every church but the goal of the tax forms and reforms package was to provide the greatest amount of relief to the greatest number of americans, and we feel it's done that. we feel the other policies that the president has put forward twhen comes to the economy have certainly moved the ball forward, made our economy infinitely stronger than it has in decades. you can see that by all of the numbers that have come out over
the last year and a half. hunter? >> what is the president prepared to do to make sure they keep their tax-exempt status? >> certainly something we're looking into but i don't have anything specific for you on that front. hunter? >> federal law says that any threatening letter or communication aims at impedesing it obstruction of justice. he doesn't think it's obstruction because the president said he should stop it rather than ordering him to halt it. you just echoed that reasoning before. what i want to know, is rudy giuliani the one giving the president legal advice on his tweets, and does that statement reflect the opinion of the president's legal team? >> the president is not obstructing. he's fighting back. the president is stating his opinion. he's stating it clearly. and he certainly is expressing the frustration that he has with the level of corruption that we've seen from people like jim
comey, peter struck. most of america is angry as well and there's no real reason he shouldn't be able to voice that opinion. margaret? >> tesla plans to spend $5 million to build a plant in china. they are saying it's not going to affect tesla operations in the u.s., but i'm wondering whether the administration has any concerns about tesla's plans. >> certainly we'd love to see all american companies investing here. i don't have anything specific on tesla but we'd encourage all companies to build their plants in america. put their investments here and not engage and help bolster a country like china that has continued to be part of a very unfair process and very unfair trading practices. john? >> thanks a lot, sarah. there was reaction to the president's tweets today from some of his allies on capitol hill.
republican senator hatch said, i don't fully get what he's trying to do. and another republican senator said the mueller investigation needs to move forward. he said they ought to let them complete their work. do you agree with that sentiment expressed by senator thoon that this investigation by mr. mueller ought to be completed and not be cut off? >> we certainly think it should be completed. sooner rather than later. it's gone on for an extensive amount of time. they've still come up with nothing in regards to the president. we'd like to see it come to a close. we've said that a number of times. so, sure, we actually agree on that front. cecilia? >> just because we're tight on time. cecilia, go ahead. sorry, john. just because we're tight on time, i'll try to get to as many people as possible. >> does the president still believe that millions of people are voting illegally in this country? is that the basis for this push for requiring voter i.d.s?
>> even if there are ten people voting illegally, it shouldn't happen. the president wants to see the integrity of our election systems upheld. he wants to make sure that anybody that's voting is somebody that should be voting. and that's something that should be celebrated. not discriminated. major? >> when was the last time the president went to a grocery store? >> i'm not sure. >> you go to the grocery store. i've never had to show an i.d. at the grocery store. i've never had to show an i.d. when i go to buy groceries. >> if you go to a grocery store and buy beer and wine you'll show your i.d. >> the president doesn't drink -- >> he's not saying every time he went in. he's saying when you go to the grocery store. i'm sure everybody in here who has been to a grocery store that's purchased beer or wine has probably had to show their i.d. if they didn't, then that's probably a problem with the grocery store. major? >> following up on john decker's question, you want the investigation to end.
you want it to end, i presume, without any obstruction or interference. many have described the president's tweet as blowing off steam. is that a fair characterization? it's just an opinion he's throwing throughout. it has nothing to do with his actual governmental control of or supervision of this investigation. >> once again as i said earlier, the president is stating his opinion. it's not an order, but he's been, i think, crystal clear about how he feels about this investigation from the beginning. sarah? >> you said a moment ago the investigation itself is corrupt. the mueller investigation. you mentioned comey and mccabe and strzok. >> the entire investigation is based off of a dirty, discredited dossier that was paid for by an opposing campaign and had a lot of corruption within the entity which was overseeing it, which was peter strzok, james comey, andrew
mccabe. i don't think we have to go into it every time we're here. >> if it is corrupt, why hasn't the president -- why doesn't he follow through on it? >> the president has allowed this process to play out. but he thinks it's time for it to come to an end. sere? >> thank you, sarah. i'm wondering if you can clarify this tweet from this morning. is it the president's desire for, first, sessions to unrecuse himself from the probe and is it also his desire for the special counsel to be fired? >> i think i've clarified this about ten times now. it's the president's opinion. i don't have anything further. steve? >> yes, sarah. last night at the tampa rally, the president again pushed for creation of a space force as a new military branch. the defense department today missed the deadline to submit a report to congress about how this space force is to be structured. and we're told the white house is now twice rejected drafts because the defense department doesn't want a space force. it would rather create a space
command under the existing military structure. in view of this, how is the president going to force the creation of a space force? >> we're continuing to work with the department of defense to figure out and determine the best way forward. something the president feels strongly about. and we're going to work with our team there and figure out the best solution. >> i have a question about the president is meeting with inner city pastors. today secretary carson pushed policies that would raise the rent on many poor people. also policies that would slow the anti-immigration initiative. what is it going to say to pastors who may be hurt by some of these policies? >> certainly that's a reason to sit down with these individuals to hear their feedback and concerns. the primary point of discussion for today is to discuss prison reform, but i wouldn't be surprised if they raise those issues. that's why the president has invited them here so he can have those ongoing conversations and determine how best to help them in a number of different situations.
>> [ inaudible ]. >> i'm sorry? >> are those policies raising rents on poor people and slowing anti-segregation initiatives, are they helping inner cities? >> i would have to look at the specific policies you're referencing. i'd be happy to do that after the briefing. julie? >> members of this administration are currently talking about big cuts to the refugee resettlement program, currently capped at $45,000 but as low as $25,000 next year. does the president feel this country admits too many refugees? what does he think the proper level is and what would the rationale be for scaling it back? >> this is part of an ongoing discussion and no policy decisions have been made. but we'll keep you posted as they are. jeff? >> sarah -- >> [ inaudible ]. >> i'm sorry? >> does the president think there are too many refugees coming in? >> we want tos make sure we know who they are, why they are coming and that they pose no danger or threat to americans. that's the number one priority. we want to make sure that we have the processes in place and the ability to vet any
individual that would come into this country. if the department of homeland security and other agencies, that they would work in coordination with determine that they don't have the ability to vet a certain number, then the president would have concerns with that. the number one priority is national security and making sure we have the ability to properly vet and process any individual that comes into this country. jeff? >> you said the president wants this investigation to be completed. he has not yet made the decision if he'll sit down with bob mueller. isn't he part of dragging this out a bit? and also when he tells you something personally, do you take it as a directive or as his opinion? >> on the first part, i would refer you to the president's outside counsel and specific negotiations with the special counsel. and the second part, i'm sorry? >> you said his tweet was his opinion. when he tells you something as a member of his staff, how do you know if it's a directive from the president or if it's simply his opinion? >> the president makes it pretty clear when i'm having those conversations with him. >> seemed pretty clear.
his tweet this morning said he wanted to -- time for the investigation to be stopped. does the president know that jeff sessions can't stop the investigation? has he directed rod rosenstein to? >> the president is well aware of how the process works. he's stating his opinion. >> what does the president plan to do about 3d plastic guns? and has he spoken to the nra about this snsh. >> the president is glad this was give more time to review. turkey this directly with president erdogan. >> yes, they have discussed it on several occasions. >> was he upset about it? >> i think you can see in the
actions the president made today he's not happy with turkey's decision not to release the pastor. >> possibility of shutdown on taxes, does the president support the way capital gains are taxed. on the possibility of a shutdown, is the president talking about potentially endorsing a government shutdown before november's election, after november's election or both. >> on the first part of your question, this is something that has a lot of support from various people. no administration policy has been determined but the president asked the treasury department to take a look into it. on the second part of your question regards to shutdown, the president is focused on timing of before or after the election, he's focused on results. he's been talking about this a year and a half. our immigration system is completely broken. he's begging and has been for congress, particularly democrats in congress, step up, do their jobs, stoppic canning the ball
down the field and work with him to fix the system. it's that simple. >> does the president have a personal opinion whether or not the system works -- >> again, he's asked the treasury department to look into it. david. >> thank you, sarah. two quickies in tampa, does the president encourage support people that show up qanonfor trump? is the white house willing to say in view of what happened to one of our tv colleagues last night he's wrong for vocal supporters to be menacing towards journalists doing their job in a situation like that or any situation? >> the first part, the president condemns and denounces any group that would incite violence against another individual and certainly doesn't support groups that would promote that type of behavior. we've been clear about that a number of times since the beginning of the administration. on the second part of your question, the president, as i
just said, does not support violence against anyone or anything. we've been very clear every single time we've been asked about that. when it comes to the media, the president does think that the media holds a responsibility. we fully support a free press. there also comes a high level of responsibility with that. the media routinely reports on classified information and government secrets that put lives in danger and risk valuable national security tools. this has happened both in our administration and in past administrations. one of the worst cases was the reporting on the u.s. ability to listen to osama bin laden's satellite phone in the late '90s. because of that reporting he stopped using that phone and the country lost valuable intelligence. unfortunately it's not standard top abandon common sense ethical practices. this is a two-way street. we certainly support free press, condemn violence against anybody but we ask people act
responsibly and report accurately and fairly. >> sarah, nobody was being violent last night. they were trying to prevent a broadcaster from getting a broadcast out and yelling his network sucks. is that right or wrong? >> i'm sorry. what was the first part your question? >> no one was being violent in terms of hitting anybody and no broadcaster was broadcasting state secrets. they were trying to do standups at a rally and people yelling over them trying. >> cheri: them from their their jobs. do you support that or not. >> why we certainly support freedom of the appreciation we support freedom of speech. we think those things go hand in hand. >> he talked a little about the tweet earlier, also the tweet about paul manafort and comparing his treatment to that of al capone. he seems to say he thought he was being treated unfairly. i guess, first of all, why does -- does the president feel like paul manafort is being treated unfairly. when he talks about solitary
confinement and the fact that manafort hasn't been convicted yet, does this administration have concerns about solitary confinement of people outside of paul manafort. >> i'm not aware of a policy decision on this front. certainly the president is clear, he thinks paul manafort has been treated unfairly. >> thank you. two question, one india, one pakistan. can you confirm if they have accepted prime minister modi to be special guest next year in january. >> i know the invitation has been extended but i don't believe a final decision has been made. i do know both secretary mattis and secretary pompeo will be traveling to india, i believe it's next month, and will begin the dialogue in the process and potential discussion for a
presidential visit later in the year. >> pakistani concern historic electi election, mr. khan on corruption election in pakistan. he had very little to say good things about india, u.s. and india but still the prime minister of pakistan today. how are you going to deal with him? >> united states -- prosecute of u.s. pakistan relations. >> certainly united states and ind india have a deep and abiding strategic partnership. we're going to continue to build on that partnership and advance cooperation. i think you'll see that at the meeting. that will take place with secretaries pompeo and mattis next month. peter. >> does the president believe paul manafort is innocent of the charges he faces. >> i don't believe that's the president's role to play. he believes he's being treated unfairly. that's all i can say. >> ask you a follow-up views expressed on twitter attorney
general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now. has the president said that directly to jeff sessions at any point? >> i'm not aware of the president stating his opinion. time for one more question. >> to rod rosenstein. >> not that i'm aware. >> a follow on that. the president's opinion session should end mueller probe but also his opinion the mueller probe should play itself out. >> the president believes he's watched this process play out. he'd like to see it come to a conclusion since it's been going on for the better part of a year and a half and they found no conclusion between the president as he said many, many times before. the president has an event in a couple minutes. >> you've also said the president believes he can fire mueller. doesn't it look weak on twitter for him to say sessions should end this probe when it's rosenstein that can end it and the president can end it. >> it's not weak for the president of the united states to state his opinion. thanks so much, guys.
all right. so there you have it. sarah sanders on the most sensitive issue, this tweet from the president this morning that attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now before it continues to stain our country any further. gloria borger said this is not an order, simply an opinion. he wants to see it come to an end. clearly he's angry about the entire investigation. >> she made a point of saying this is not obstructing. what he's doing is fighting back. and when she was asked is he blowing off steam, she said this is his opinion, it is not an order. but he's been crystal clear about how he feels. i don't know. dana mentioned this before. when a president says you should do something, what's the difference between that and you must do something? >> it's an important issue. she also said, jim sciutto, that this entire investigation, the mueller investigation, is based on a dirty, discredited dossier.
>> the white house podium has become a platform for repeating false information. we've seen it for a year and a half now. that is an abjectly false statement. it's in the documents. the investigation began before the documents existed. when campaign aide george papadopoulos bragged to an australian diplomat about russians offering help and having dirt on hillary clinton and that diplomat, who is a close u.s. ally of the u.s., member of the five group of intelligence sharing nations felt it was significant enough to volunteer to come to the fbi with this information. that's what kicked off this counter-intelligence situation. sarah sanders knows that, the president knows that, it's in the public record, yet she's willing to repeat what is a false statement. this is something the president repeats all the time as part of a broader and strategic attack on his feud to undermine the investigation. in addition to that, listen to her language.
witch hunt has now become not just something that shows up in the president's tweets but repeated from the white house podium and a description of legal investigation endorsed by republicans and democrats. a shorthand. doesn't bother saying mueller probe, it is the witch hunt, which is taken from the president's tweet. they could dismiss the president's tweet as letting off steam but it's become official moniker endorsed by both republicans and democrats. so the president's words do matter. they are repeated from the white house podium. >> another sensitive issue, day two of the paul manafort trial, federal trial in alexandria, virginia, federal trump campaign chairman and the president weighing in on twitter making all sorts of references to the way al capone is treated, paul manafort is being treated. she said, sarah sanders, i think paul manafort is treated unfairly. it's unusual during a criminal trial for the president of the united states to weigh in.
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